Working with Dame Kelly Holmes Trust Athlete Mentor, Ben Fletcher, 12-year-old Theo, a patient who has been in and out of Sheffield Children’s Hospital for over six years, saw tremendous changes in his confidence, self-esteem, and increased his physical activity as well as further encouragement in continuing to grow his budding business.  

Harry became a patient at Sheffield Children’s Hospital after being involved in a bike accident in 2024 which resulted in his sustaining a diffuse axonal brain injury.  

We are pleased to announce that Jo McDiarmid has been appointed as Interim CEO for Dame Kelly Holmes Trust.  Jo has been with the Trust for over 5 years and steps into the role after leading the operations team as Head of Programmes, Communications and Marketing.  

Young people from Lewisham College recently went to the KKR offices for an inspiring visit to mark the end of their Dame Kelly Holmes Trust Get on Track Employability programme.

20-year-old Michaela, a resident at Dove Cott Foyer in Basildon recently took part in Dame Kelly Holmes Trust’s Get on Track programme with former Commonwealth Gold Medallist fencer and Trust Athlete Mentor Claire Bennett.  

Residents at Sanctuary Supported Living in Basildon deliver social action projects to engage their wider communities

Programme Manager Max shares her thoughts on a visit to Sheffield Children’s Hospital with Athlete Mentor Kelvin Batey

Students at Lewisham College launch Glow & Games space in their student hub

Kelvin Batey, BMX champion and athlete mentor, visited our partner Great Ormond Street Hospital to meet healthcare professionals and young people

As the needs of our beneficiaries become ever more complex, we are delighted to be partnering with funders Jacobs Futura Foundation to provide our athlete mentors with a wide range of specific training and personal development opportunities so they can better support these young people.

We hope you didn’t miss the action out in Milano Cortina, as the Winter Paralympians ‘sent it’ as our very own Athlete Mentor, Anna Turney would say! As a two-time Winter Paralympic Athlete – we thought there is no better person than Anna to share her thoughts on the action and her experiences and memories of when she competed. So, sit back, switch on some highlights from the Games and enjoy this blog from Anna.

A high energy trio of AQA Unlocking Potential mid-point events took place in Milton Keynes, Reading and Manchester recently as students from different parts of the country took part in a Dame Kelly Holmes Trust style Dragon’s Den to pitch their social action projects.  

To mark International Women’s Day, we decided to sit-down with Ruth Mwandumba to discuss all things motherhood, working full-time and being a professional athlete.  

For Alyvia, a 12-year-old at King Ethelbert School in Kent our Enhanced On Track to Achieve (OTTA) programme, funded by the Lawson Trust, with athlete mentor Claire Bennett represented a shift in resilience, trying out new sports and increased confidence. The programme features one-to-one mentoring as well as our standard OTTA group sessions, offering young people the opportunity to go into greater depth with our athlete mentors on their own personal development plans, teamed with the essential teamwork and collaboration of the group sessions. 

Dame Kelly Holmes Trust and Sanctuary Supported Living are marking the fifth year of their partnership, continuing a shared commitment to supporting young people to build confidence, resilience and wellbeing through the Trust’s bespoke Get on Track programme.

Students at Folkestone Academy found the On Track to Achieve programme, funded by Virtual Schools South Kent, and working with former Commonwealth Gold medallist fencer, and Trust Athlete Mentor, Claire Bennett a catalyst to improved stability and behaviour in school.  

With another academic year upon us, we’ve had a brilliant few weeks launching the AQA Unlocking Potential programme, now in its 15^th year, and final year of our fantastic partnership with education charity, AQA.   

Dame Kelly Holmes Trust programmes puts world class athletes shoulder to shoulder with young people, equipping them with a winning mindset and shaping their futures – and for Amalie at Cambourne College, our AQA Unlocking Potential programme, in partnership with AQA, offered her an inspirational role model in her athlete mentor and improved her confidence.  

At Dame Kelly Holmes Trust we know that the best way to understand the impact of our programmes on young people is to see it in real life! As such, we encourage our whole team to visit programmes whenever they can. Senior Income Generation Manager, Kellie Ormond joined the team in September and was excited to visit the AQA Unlocking Potential launch event in Milton Keynes recently.  

Dame Kelly Holmes Trust is thrilled to announce its partnership with St George’s Hospital, as the charity continues to expand its transformational one-to-one mentoring programme for young people.

Aleksander’s Story Boosting confidence and encouraging teamwork: over the course of the On Track to Achieve programme at the Winstanley School in Leicester, Aleksander’s confidence grew as he became an integral part of the group. We caught up with him to hear about his experience working with athlete mentor, Kelvin.

St Edwards School, Montpelier High School, Lutterworth and Kingsbury Academy students all delivered exceptional social action projects which benefited their local communities - find out more today.

After launching the One-to-One Mentoring Programme, funded by Sport England, at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust  earlier in 2025, Lexie has been one of the first patients to work with our world class athlete mentors. Read more about her story.

Thanks to Deloitte’s 5 Million Futures initiative we were able to work with them to support local young people in Nottingham. Find out more about how impact stretched over three years.

In our third instalment of our Social Action Project spotlight articles we look back at how Wymondham College and Bourne Academy impacted their local community.

Chatham Grammar and Kings Leadership are our next Social Action Project spotlight. Find out what these schools in Kent and Manchester did to make a difference in their local community.

Students and teachers from the 30 schools from across the UK, participating in AQA Unlocking Potential were invited to join their athlete mentors at London Zoo for a celebration of their achievements.

Across the UK, schools have been busy delivering their social action projects. In the first article of our summer series will look at what Nicholas Chamberlaine and Sir Thomas Boughey got up to.

Annie Moody will become Dame Kelly Holmes Trust interim CEO following Martin Talbot’s departure on the 11th July.

We sat down with CEO of Lazarus & Maverick, Alex Lazarus to discuss the blossoming partnership between her global leadership coaching and advisory firm and Dame Kelly Holmes Trust.